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One reason members love K-Kids: immersive learning. It’s something the club offers that the school day often cannot. By engaging in fundraising, serving and advocacy projects in ways that are playful and relatable, K-Kids members develop a deeper understanding of the “why” behind the service they do.

No matter what service project your K-Kids members choose, they can always take it further. Here’s how.

Fundraising
Almost all service projects require some money. Hosting a fundraiser is a way for members to participate in a philanthropic activity—and relate their fundraising efforts to their ultimate project goal. As members establish a project budget and determine how much money needs to be raised, ask members to consider these questions:

What is our project goal?

What items will be needed or used to meet our goal?

How can we raise money using those (or similar) items?

Example: A K-Kids club pursues a goal to donate purchased food to those in need. To raise funds to buy nonperishable items, the club hosts a bake sale.

Hands-on service
The mission of K-Kids is to teach young people leadership through service. Planning and taking part in service projects is a great way for club members to gain leadership skills. Help them bridge experiential gaps by asking them to consider the following questions as they plan:

Could our club assist a particular organization?

Which organizations can we help?

What is our club capable of?

Example: A K-Kids club pursues a goal to donate food to those in need. To deliver donated food to individuals who need it, the club offers to stock a local food pantry.

Advocacy
K-Kids can make others aware of an issue and encourage them to take action. But first, they have to know the issue themselves. Enrich the member experience by connecting members with educational resources that allow them to learn more. Then encourage members to tell others about what they’ve learned. The following questions can help them identify ways to educate the public about their project:

What can our club do to educate others? Who would benefit
from hearing about our experience?

Example: A K-Kids club decides to donate food to those in need. First, the club reads an age-appropriate book about hunger and then writes a newspaper article about their experiences.

Projects that touch on all three categories of service heighten the impact of members’ work. As a result, K-Kids members discover the heart to serve, answer the call to lead and summon the courage to engage. Members also gain exposure to opportunities they wouldn’t have had otherwise: meeting new people, learning about new organizations and mastering large scale service projects.

K-Kids around the country rocked Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF this year. Now it’s time to celebrate the moms and babies your club protected. Announce your accomplishment to the school. Recognize your club members’ contribution to eliminating maternal and neonatal tetanus with a certificate or a thank you card. Share your stories and photos with us at Campaign@TheEliminateProject.org, Facebook and Twitter—or mail your letters, drawings and photos to the campaign office.

And don’t forget to transform your hard-earned funds into lifesaving vaccines. Once you’ve collected all of your donations, send a check or money order (made payable to the Kiwanis Children’s Fund) and your completed gift form to:

To ensure your club receives proper recognition for its efforts, be sure to write your club name or club number on the memo line of the check, and mark “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” on your gift form. Clubs that submit more than US$250 by December 31, 2016, will receive a special banner patch.

Thank you for helping make this the best Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF year yet and for making a difference for moms and babies!

Congratulations to the Keystone Heights Elementary K-Kids club in the Kiwanis Florida District for winning October's Best Bulletin Board Design contest. The club's faculty advisor will soon be collecting the club’s prize, a free $100 shopping spree from Kiwanis.org/warehouse (formerly Kiwanis.DollarDays.com). Check out the winning entry.

Vote now for November's Best T-shirt Design contest!
Exploring ideas. Being creative. That’s what K-Kids members experienced when they participated in the best t-shirt design contest. Check out the entries to see which one is your favorite and vote for it! Help the entry get even more votes by sharing it on social media and asking friends and family to vote for it, too! The winning club will receive a Kiwanis Marketplace $100 shopping spree through Kiwanis.org/warehouse (formerly Kiwanis.DollarDays.com).

Coming up - January's contest: Best poster for a cause (entries accepted January 1-13)
What are your club members passionate about? How do they want to make your school, community and the world a better place? Work with your club members to develop an advocacy campaign that educates others about a cause. Maybe it’s helping provide clean water in third world countries—or homelessness in your own community. Whatever it is, ask club members to design posters as part of an advocacy campaign. One person from the club can design the poster, or it can be a group effort. As long as the club is educating others about a cause, that’s all that matters. Visit the 2016–17 Contest Information page to learn more.

5. Create a Kiwanis family memento, such as a banner, wooden K,
display board or anything else that club members can think of.

No matter what project you decide to do this November, be sure to check out K-Kids on Facebook and Twitter to find out how other clubs around the world are celebrating Kiwanis Family Month. And help spread the word about K-Kids:

Show your personal pride by downloading and posting this
'Proud K-Kids advisor' image on your social media accounts.
Along with the image, share why you love K-Kids and how
long you’ve served in your role. Encourage other K-Kids
volunteers to do the same.

According to a recent study, the mind wanders (i.e., thinks about something other than what one is actually doing) 42% of the time. That could mean pleasant thoughts, but it’s usually about negative, worrisome things—and the same negative thoughts over and over. Learning to break this pattern makes a huge impact on an individual's happiness.

Mindfulness can help. It’s the practice of being in the moment without judgment—which cultivates happiness, compassion, kindness and connection to self and others.

Since the brain is wired to anticipate danger, we pull memories from previous experiences. This creates the lens we see through when approaching and processing future experiences. But mindfulness provides a way to respond rather than react—to let go of preconceived notions and instead approach events with openness.

A few key activities can help club members view a service project with fresh eyes—and focus on the present moment, immersing the mind in the activity at hand.

Check out our handouts for some simple mindfulness activities They’ll help club members develop:

Concentration.
Noticing the activity of the mind and how the mind wanders, then bringing the mind back to the current moment.

Equanimity.
The ability to “be with” the experience without overidentifying with it—or pushing it away. Members learn to find balance and neutrality within a situation, however intense it may be.

Read through the mindfulness activities and try a few with K-Kids members before and after their service projects. Each activity will take only five minutes—or fewer. These activities are offered by Mindful Schools and Project Happiness. These organizations develop curriculum based on Neuroscience, Positive Psychology and Mindfulness.

Before for the event
Conduct these activities before a K-Kids event to open club members to a mindful, meaningful experience.

Advisors are the sometimes-hidden but always-present forces that help each club succeed. Your work isn’t always easy, but the sense of achievement and reward is real.

On November 4, check your inbox for a special thank you email message from the leader of Kiwanis International. It’s our way of personally saying thank you for everything you do for your K-Kids club. We are also sharing this social media square for you, your school, and/or your community organization to upload and share with friends, family, followers and supporters.

Take the day’s celebration farther! Recognize your fellow advisor in any of the following ways:

Start small. Encourage K-Kids members to try the project over holiday break. Then introduce the concept school-wide after everyone returns.

Make a Happiness Jar or Can
How it works
The goal is to fill up the jar or can with pieces of paper that document positive moments and events. On each day of the holiday break, the K-Kids member and his or her family members write down a happy occurrence and fill up the Happiness Jar/Can. Some examples to look for: the happiest moment of the day, something for which you feel grateful, lucky tokens like event/movie tickets, or notes from friends.

On the last day of break, the K-Kids member arranges with his or her family to sit together and review all the paper slips in the Happiness Jar/Can.

Reflection
At the next meeting, ask the K-Kids to share one happy thing that happened during the break. Then ask them how the project it made them feel—did participation help them and their family members feel happier?

Next step: Ask club members how they can expand the Happiness Jar/Can concept to the entire school. Break club members into smaller groups for discussion. Could each class have a Happiness Jar/Can? How would this be managed? When can teachers and students look at what was placed in the Happy Jars/Cans?

This may seem like an unusual service project, but scientific studies show that happiness is a set of skills that can be learned. We can increase our happiness quotient by the choices we make and activities we do. Happier people learn more easily, become healthier and more productive, and show more kindness to others. Learn more about the science of happiness. And don’t forget to use K-Kids journal pages 1 – 4, 5 – 8, and 9 – 12 to help K-Kids increase their personal happiness.

Kiwanis One Day—it’s the day each year when the Kiwanis family of clubs comes together in local communities. Every K-Kids club is invited to join with the rest of the Kiwanis family (Aktion Club, Builders Club, Key Club, Circle K and Kiwanis) for a day of united service. A lot of good work gets done on this day—the kind that increases Kiwanis’ presence in the community and builds awareness about the value of service.

In fact, Kiwanis One Day showcases the Kiwanis family in each community. Projects run the gamut from beach cleanups to book drives, playground maintenance to pet days at senior centers, health fairs to high school beatifications. Imagine the impact more than 600,000 Kiwanis family members around the world can make in one day of united service.

Is your club participating? Share your Kiwanis One Day story in the Kiwanis One Day photo contest—and enter to win a Kiwanis Family Store gift certificate!

For resources to help execute your Kiwanis One Day activity, visit the official Kiwanis One Day page.

November contest: Best t-shirt design (entries accepted November 1-11)
If you think the K-Kids T-shirts in the Kiwanis Family Store are nice but prefer a T-shirt with a little more oomph, here’s your chance to make one. Create the perfect T-shirt design. Draw your picture on an 8 ½ x 11” sheet of paper or use computer software to create your work of art. Visit the 2016-17 Contest Information page to learn more.

Want to learn about even more contests? See what else is coming up. Choose the contests you and your club members like the best and plan ahead.

The Kiwanis family is bigger than just your club. It has clubs for every age and ability: adult Kiwanis clubs, Circle K clubs for university students, Aktion Clubs for adults with disabilities, Key Clubs for high school students, Builders Clubs for middle school students and K-Kids for elementary school students.

Take a moment this month to appreciate what other clubs in your area are doing. Reach out and share your love of the Kiwanis family with a fundraiser, service project or shared activity. Need ideas? We’ve got you covered.